Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS): Italian adaptation, psychometrics and diagnostics

Telephone-based cognitive screening (TBCS) is crucial to telehealth care of neurological patients, prevention campaigns, and epidemiological studies on cognitive impairment. The Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) is one of the most widespread and psychometrically/diagnostically sound TBCS test, with several versions developed worldwide (e.g., with and without a delayed recall item). In Italy, only attempts of adaptation and preliminary evidence of its statistical features have been provided so far. This study thus aimed at (1) developing an Italian version of the TICS and assessing its (2) psychometric and (3) diagnostic properties.

A back-translated and culturally adapted version of the TICS was developed. Three-hundred and sixty-five healthy individuals from different regions of Italy (147 males, 216 females; age: 53.2 ± 16 years; education: 13 ± 4.5 years) were administered the TICS and the Italian telephone-based Mini-Mental State Examination (Itel-MMSE). Validity was tested by convergence and at the structure level, whereas reliability as internal consistency, test-retest, and inter-rater. Diagnostic accuracy, item difficulty, and discrimination were also examined.

The TICS featured a single component and its score converged with that of the Itel-MMSE (r_s = .37). Reliability was excellent as inter-rater (ICC = .94), good as test-retest (ICC = .78), and acceptable as internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .63). Accuracy was high as tested against the Itel-MMSE (AUC = .83) and did not improve when adding the delayed recall. Backward subtraction was the most difficult and discriminative task.

The Italian TICS is a valid, reliable, and diagnostically accurate TBCS test. The original format of the TICS can be thus adopted in both clinical and research settings.